When I was younger I always heard the “grownups” talking about how fast December went by, and I didn’t understand them. Now I do!

There’s only a few days before Christmas, and I’m ready! I didn’t have much to buy, and mostly I’ve just been having fun baking some goodies to share with people. Louie and I have enjoyed a few holiday activities, in particular, the Lafayette Square Parlor Tour.

It felt a little weird traipsing through other people’s houses taking pictures, but we got into the spirit of it quickly enough. This is definitely an event we would do again if I were free for it!

The homes varied from being reasonably sized and beautifully decorated to gigantic and beautifully decorated.

The Lafayette Square neighborhood is filled with gorgeous houses, and it was really neat to see some of them on the inside. The tour was easy to follow and we spent about 4 hours visiting all the homes. There were lines at times, and we took a short break to use the bathroom and get free hot chocolate at a local business as well. There is a trolley you can ride and we did manage to hop on one time!

We went to see the Messiah at the Symphony earlier. I hadn’t been looking forward to it, since I’ve played the Messiah so many times, but I ended up really enjoying the performance! It was very well done (of course) and not too long (ha!). We also went to the see the 442’s Holiday Spectacular at the 560 Center and didn’t enjoy that as much. It was a little more religiously Christmas than we expected for a  “Holiday” show and not really my type of music. I went because some of my students were playing on a few tunes, and I was happy I went for that reason (and I ran into a few families of former students and one former student—former because they graduated, so always nice to catch up!). A little elevator music, a lot of praising god, and a bit of Prairie Home Companion feel—I know people love that show, and I really hate it! The audience really seemed to love the show however, so this is in no means a negative review, just a “not my type of thing but if you like that you’ll love it” type of review!

I’ve also been doing a good amount (probably too much) of holiday baking. I hadn’t really done much baking in a long time, so this is my return to it. I’ve been trying to figure out what I really do enjoy in life and do more of that…I’ve let work overwhelm me the past couple of years and I’m trying to regain some sense of personal life.

A very delicious Cranberry Eggnog bread.

Pomegranate, Sage, White Cheddar Cheese Ball.

Cranberry Shortbread Cookies.

Wait, that’s not a recipe!

Holiday Sugar Cookie Brittle (I’m not sure this one turned out quite right).

Ooh, and Cherry Almond Shortbread. The recipe only makes what you see here, but it was tasty. If I were only making one kind of cookie I’d double the recipe. Note to myself, flatten the cookies a bit before baking.

So that’s what I’ve been up to! How about you? Are you getting some vacation for the holidays? Doing any travel? Have you done any baking or are you still planning to?